Facets
by B.B.Wolf123
Summary: Over time their paths have diverged considerably. A couple of short pieces, touching on Sagat's and Adon's past together.


_A/N: me again, and trying my hand at something a little different and much more experimental this time. Not really sure how well I succeeded, but __I basically wanted to try to write something short, to the point, and without any fighting whatsoever. Okay, so without any _physical_ fighting whatsoever. And Adon punches Sagat in the face once. But that's it!_

_I tried not to stray too far from canon, although I took some liberties.__ Quite a few, actually. Also, this is totally non-slashy. Hope you enjoy!_

* * *

I.

When Sagat met him for the very first time, the red hair was much shorter.

He had walked into the training grounds, lean and tall, and had dropped his bag on the ground next to his feet with a flourish, the gesture drawing immediate attention.

"Master Sagat!" he called. "I am here to train under you!"

Sagat frowned and turned away from the two sparring students he was observing. He walked over to the new arrival, his frame casting a large shadow over the younger man.

"And who might you be?"

The red-haired man pressed the palms of his hands together in front of his face and gave a bow in the traditional greeting. It was respectful enough, but only barely, the bow being just a bit too hasty and the hands not quite high enough. The confident smile never left his lips.

"My name is Adon," he said. "I want you to teach me the art of Muay Thai."

Sagat raised an eyebrow, crossed his arms. "Oh? And what makes you so certain I am willing to train you at all?"

Adon blinked as though the notion of rejection hadn't crossed his mind. "Why wouldn't you?" he asked. A quick jerk of the head indicated the gathered students. "I can easily keep up with this lot."

Murmuring from the students, but Sagat chuckled, intrigued despite himself. "That is quite the brazen statement. You say you can be as good as my students?"

Brown eyes glanced away for a second. "No." When he looked back at Sagat, the smile had widened to a grin. "I can be better than them."

Sagat let his arms fall to his sides. "Then show me."

The younger man was a beginner at best, but it took the bald warrior twenty minutes and a brutal beating to force him to stay down.

After that, Sagat didn't doubt Adon had spoken the truth.

* * *

II.

The sound of exertion drew him to the main chamber as he made his rounds to close off the gym late one evening. His students had already left, all except for one. He found the red-haired man at one of the heavy training bags, perspiration running down his face and chest as he landed punch after punch on the fabric.

Sagat walked over to him. "Still training?" he asked.

"If I don't train, I won't get better." A sharp punch into the bag. "Will I?"

Sagat grunted in agreement – he wasn't in the habit of teaching weaklings, after all – and while it was recognizable, there had to be a time to call it quits.

"That's enough for now," he said. His pupil had difficulty knowing when to stop from the beginning.

Another punch, more forcefully. The younger man didn't look up. "I'm not finished yet."

"It's enough for now." Harsher this time.

Adon hesitated, stopped, shot a grudging glance his mentor's way. "Master…."

"A part of learning is also listening," Sagat said. Listening was another thing his pupil had difficulty with from the beginning. "Don't be stubborn."

There was a barely perceptible twitch of the lips. The red-haired man swallowed and inclined his head in compliance – after a fashion. "Of course, Master," he said. Then he smiled and patted the bag. "I just need to practice more so I can get even better than I already am."

"'Even better'? One could take that as overconfidence," Sagat told him dryly.

"It's not overconfidence if it's true, is it?" Adon shrugged. "I am better than the others, aren't I?"

Sagat didn't answer. Even if it was true, he wasn't going to boost the man's ego even further. "Why did you chose to learn Muay Thai in the first place?" he asked after his apprentice had stepped away from the training area.

The bald warrior had asked all his students the question, but the younger man's answer surprised him.

"Why? So I can become as powerful as you, of course!" Adon laughed. "Muay Thai is the strongest fighting style there is. If I train harder, I can become invincible, like you."

He raised his eyebrow at the casualness of the remark. "You seem very certain of this."

"Of course." Adon's voice was full of conviction. "You can't lose. Muay Thai is unbeatable."

In his own overconfidence, Sagat had believed that as well.

* * *

III.

When the _Shoryuken_ ripped through his chest, he knew it was over.

He had been winning, had not doubted it in the least. The Japanese man had been good, but not better than him. Lying at Sagat's feet as he was, coughing weakly and wiping blood from his mouth, had proven as much.

Nevertheless, Sagat had been impressed at the karateka's determination and had gone as far as to try and help up his young challenger. He had already reached out his hand when the man's eyes had flown open, red-tinted in the fading glow of the setting sun. The brutal uppercut had taken him completely by surprise.

When his vision cleared, most of his students had gathered around him. Blood was pooling on the dusty floor of the ring, streaming from the jagged wound. The crowd that had been cheering him on before, had now quieted down to murmurs and whispers.

Somehow, the disbelief on their faces hurt more than the injury from the attack that had felled him did.

"Master, how are you feeling?" one of his apprentices asked.

"Do you need help?" another one said, voice tight.

The young Japanese man – the man who had defeated him –knelt next to him, expression dazed, demeanor confused.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled. "Are you all right? I don't know what happened. I –"

Sagat paid him no attention. He had lost. That was the only thing that mattered.

It was when he tried to sit up – and failing – that he spotted his best pupil.

Adon hadn't come over to his side. He hadn't moved from his spot at the edge of the crowd of onlookers, the heavy bruising on his jaw displaying his own, earlier defeat at the hands of the same man who had now beaten his mentor.

He stood staring at the scene in front of him, at Sagat, face pale and rigid with shock. There was dismay in his eyes, not unlike that of the others, and there was something else as well.

It would take Sagat a while before he would recognize it as contempt_._

* * *

IV.

He didn't know how long he had been standing in the shadow of the temple ruin's wall, once again touching the wound on his chest, when the approach of rapid footsteps stirred him from his stupor.

Days since the tournament and he still hadn't been able to shake the despair, the frustration. He had let his students to fend for themselves, finding it hard to bear the hooded glances and the whispers. He had withdrawn, his thoughts returning over and over to the battle he had lost.

Although the arrival startled Sagat, he should have realized that the other man would find him eventually.

"I can't believe you lost like that." The voice that addressed him sounded both shaken and accusatory.

"Leave me, Adon." Quietly, dully. How _could_ he have lost like that?

Silence. Then the sound of spit hitting the rock-strewn ground.

"So you're going to give up?" Adon's shock had been replaced by disgust. "I took you for a great fighter, but it seems I was wrong. You act like you don't even want to go on, like a pathetic, weak –"

"I told you to _leave me_!" Sagat bellowed, whirling to face the younger man.

It was a testament to his lingering force of will that Adon faltered for a second.

But only for a second. "No," he said, eyes narrowing. "No!" he repeated and his mouth twisted in a sneer. "You're a weakling and a coward! You no longer deserve the title of Emperor of Muay Thai!" His hands clenched into fists. "And if you aren't worthy of keeping the title," he snarled, "I'll take it from you!"

With that, the red-haired man lunged. Body wounded and mind numb, Sagat was late in avoiding the punch aimed at him. It slammed into his cheek, rocking his head to the side, bloodying his lip.

Something snapped inside him. Fury replaced shame. The bald warrior hurled himself at the red-haired man with a roar.

Losing himself to his own blind rage, Sagat wasn't able to keep his title. But when Shadaloo approached him shortly thereafter with an offer, he was past caring for it.

* * *

V.

He visited Adon in the hospital once before leaving for Shadaloo's headquarters, although in hindsight he probably shouldn't have.

He was staring at the light filtering through the room's window when Sagat arrived. Though Sagat had lost his title, he was faring better than his pupil did. The younger man was recovering slowly, the bruised cheek and dislocated shoulder gradually healing over. The fractured ribs and broken leg would take much longer.

An uncomfortable silence, and when he finally spoke, the red-haired man's tone was uncompromising. "Why did you come here?"

Sagat wasn't entirely sure, either. He remained standing at the foot of the bed. "I'm going away for business," he said. "I'm closing the gym for now."

There was no reply. The younger man's gaze didn't shift away from the window.

"I have assigned the students to other teachers," he continued. "They will take over the training while I am gone."

"So you're going to flee." It was more a statement than a question.

Sagat grunted. "Hardly. I merely need to do something for myself." He wasn't fleeing. He simply wanted - needed – a rematch. He needed to avenge himself on Ryu. "It has nothing to do with running away."

Now the lips curled nastily and now Adon turned his head to stare at him. There was a lot of contempt there. A lot of hatred too.

"If by doing something for yourself you mean tucking your tail between your legs and calling it quits then, no, I suppose it hasn't."

He knew it had been a mistake to come. "This is pointless," Sagat growled. Feeling the familiar rage bubbling to the surface, he walked to the door, deciding to leave before he would do something he was going to regret.

As he did the red-haired man lurched up. Even though it must have hurt, his face was twisted in rage more than in pain.

"You couldn't even beat some Japanese nobody and now you're turning your back on Muay Thai!? You're a disgrace!" he snarled. "If you won't uphold the honor of Muay Thai, then I'll do it myself! Do you hear me, you coward?!"

Sagat closed the door behind him, cutting off the curses hurled his way.

* * *

VI.

His red hair was longer now.

The stadium was packed. As Sagat watched his former pupil dispatch his opponent from the sidelines, amidst roars and chants of the crowd, he didn't think Adon would notice him, or if he did, would simply disregard him.

So it startled the one-eyed warrior when the younger man gestured him over afterwards and seemed, in fact, unsurprised at seeing his former mentor, even though it had been a while.

"So you decided to show your face again, eh?" the red-haired fighter asked by way of greeting as he opened one of the lockers. "Are you still working for that Shadaloo group?"

It wasn't something Sagat cared to talk about, but he wasn't going to avoid the errors he had made in the past, either. "I have left that part of my life behind me," he said simply.

"Good for you." The other man took out his bag. "Perhaps now you can start doing something worthwhile with yourself."

Ignoring the stinging remark, Sagat focused on something else instead. "I see you have been able to keep the title of Emperor," he observed.

Adon turned to him, smirking. "Were you expecting anything less?"

Sagat crossed his arms, tried not to let his irritation show too much. "At the very least I expected you're behavior to have improved by now."

Unfazed, the younger man's grin only widened. "Please. What does that matter? The only thing of importance is winning. Being strong is what counts, not manners." The look he gave his former mentor was calculating. "As a matter of fact, I found a way to become even stronger. Would you like to know what it is?"

Despite his better judgment, Sagat decided to take the bait. "Tell me."

"There is a man named Akuma, wearing the symbol 'ten' on his back. Do you know of his power? The _Satsui no Hadou_?"

"I have heard of him and his power," he replied flatly. He had heard the stories.

"I'm going to seek him out." Adon's eyes glittered. "I'm going to challenge him."

Sagat's remaining patience left him. "Don't be a fool," he said brusquely. "Even if you were able to defeat this Akuma, the power he possesses is twisted. If you think using it is going to make you a better warrior, you're wrong."

"So you'd rather have me shy away from a fight?" The locker shook on its hinges when the red-haired man slammed it close. "I will honor Muay Thai the way you never did," he went on. "If I can beat this Akuma, if I can obtain this _Satsui no Hadou_ for myself, I can show everyone that nothing is stronger than Muay Thai."

Sagat stared at him. "This isn't the way, Adon. Getting in a battle you cannot win for the sake of your excessive pride is ridiculous."

"Who said anything about not winning?" Adon chuckled. "Either way, It's still better than standing around doing nothing, like someone else I know." He turned to leave, throwing a last comment over his shoulder. "It makes me wonder what happened to _your_ pride."

"There is a difference between pride and reckless arrogance." Sagat shook his head. "I have learned from my mistakes," he said. "When will you?"

Adon looked back at him and laughed. It was pitched too high to be entirely sane.

"What mistakes?" he asked, and Sagat realized it was no further use speaking to his former apprentice.

* * *

VII.

Nevertheless, he attempted to talk to the man one last time, and he met Adon on the gravel path that would eventually lead to the road to Bangkok's old airport.

"You are still holding onto this stubborn determination to go after this being?" Sagat asked, even though he already knew the answer and even though he doubted it would change the younger fighter's mind in any way.

Adon's gaze flicked to him in annoyance. "I wouldn't be here if I wasn't."

"He will kill you." The words were spoken bluntly, but truthfully.

Surprisingly, the red-haired man didn't immediately reply to that. He adjusted his traveling bag instead, and looked out over the path before him, expression unusually thoughtful.

"Perhaps he will at that," he said finally. Then the familiar grin returned. "But I am the Emperor of Muay Thai. What kind of example would I be setting if I backed out now? And besides, what's to worry? I can take this."

Sagat shook his head. "Foolish," he said only. Everything that needed to be said had been said, after all.

"It's still preferable over your passivity." With a jerk of his head, the red-haired fighter started to move away. He gave his former mentor one final glance.

"Well," he said, "see you around." A twitch of the mouth into what almost resembled a smirk. "Or maybe not."

Sagat's chest rose in a sigh. "At least keep in mind some of the things I taught you," he spoke after the other man, feeling the sudden urge to say something, to get last words in.

This time Adon didn't respond. Without turning around, he gave a brief wave. Whether it was meant as an acknowledgement or a dismissal, the bald warrior couldn't tell.

Sagat watched his former pupil walk down the road and, for a brief moment, thought of following him. Of trying to stop him.

In the end, he didn't.


End file.
